International travel insurance

You do need to be sure that you have adequate health insurance for your trip and that depends on what your current insurance covers. As for trip cancellation, etc. it just depends on what you have at risk. Mosts insurance will only cover what you lose. If, because of a COVERED problem, you have to change airline tickets then the insurance could pay for the change fee and the additional cost of the ticket. If you can cancel your lodging at no cost then there will be no recovery because you have not lost anything. Fine prints vary greater for read carefully. We, personal, do not take any insurance beyond health.

Read the fine print on amy policy you consider. Most will not cover acts of war, insurrection, or terrorism. Whether they would cover cancellation due to fear of potential terrorism is even more questionable.

Some travel insurance companies require you to purchase the insurance within 14 days of when you put the deposit down on your trip. If you purchased everything months ago and are suddenly getting cold feet because of the warning, it may cost a lot and not cover certain things.

Try insuremytrip.com They will help you even over the phone to get exactly what you want for the best price. We had a claim on a broken arm and broken shoulder in 09. They paid for an upgrade to first class, and all out of pocket costs. We will NEVER go without it again! D.

We have been traveling for about 20 years, and have never purchased international travel insurance until this year. We bought the medical only through Insuremytrip. In all these years of traveling, this is the first year we had a medical problem, and my husband was hospitalized for 3 1/2 days in France. The claim is being looked at right now. We will never go without it again.

If you buy insurance now they probably won't cover issues stemming from terrorist threats because the state department has already issued a warning. You have to wait for them to give the OK to travel. Also, you do have to buy within a certain period of time from your first payment on your trip.

You might lose out on some extra add-on coverage that you really didn't need anyway by not purchasing within a certain timeframe, but you can purchase a plan with many carriers right up to your point of departure. Some policies cover cancellation due to terrorist events as outlined in the carrier's certificate of coverage (but not war or riot). As someone mentioned above, read the fine print before purchasing. If you can't find the contract/certificate online, call the carrier and ask them to e-mail a copy (not a brochure but the actual contract...they'll send it if you ask for it). A cancel for any reason add-on will let you cancel for nearly any reason (i.e. fear due to terror alert), but there are restrictions in terms of proximity to your departure date. Cancel for any reason may actually require purchase within a specified time...there's alot of good information available online. I had never purchased a policy before last year but did during the height of the flu outbreak. The plan covered four travelers for $76...air change fees alone would have been $1000 if needed. Pretty cheap for peace of mind. I went with Travelex Basic.

To date I haven't purchased travel insurance and haven't needed it. It's really a value decision between the price for insurance and your perception of whether it's worth the price or not. For me, it keeps coming up not - but that doesn't mean next trip will be the same.